(R for language and some bloody violence.) Cast includes Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson and Scoot McNairy. Written and directed by David Michod. At Kendall Square, Cambridge. Grade: C.

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THE ROVER

(R for language and some bloody violence.) Cast includes Guy Pearce, Robert Pattinson and Scoot McNairy. Written and directed by David Michod. At Kendall Square, Cambridge. Grade: C.

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Give Robert Pattinson credit for trying, but the actor formerly known as Edward Cullen continues to struggle to gain legitimacy in his latest post-“Twilight” endeavor, “The Rover.” You can literally see him sweat, and not just from the 110-degree Outback heat. You fear he’ll get a hernia from all the overexerting that goes into fleshing out a naive, slow-witted Australian drifter with an inexplicable Southern drawl. He’s Rey, and along with his older, smarter brother, Henry (Scoot McNairy), and a couple of other low-lifes, he makes a living killing – and robbing – survivors of an undisclosed apocalyptic event that occurred 10 years earlier.

Luckily, he’s not the star of David Michod’s “Mad Max”-like thriller. That would be Guy Pearce, outstanding as Eric, a man with a hot temper and cool demeanor who is on a deeply personal mission. And God help anyone who dares get in his way. But even divine intervention isn’t likely to save Henry and his two flunkies (David Field and Tawanda Manyimo) after they make the fatal mistake of stealing Eric’s battered car and hitting the road across a dusty, barren Outback. The chase is on, and helping Eric in his dogged pursuit is the unlikeliest of allies: Rey, whom he finds gasping for breath with a bullet lodged in his rail-thin gut.

With a snap of the fingers, Eric rounds up a ride, a gun and a female doctor to nurse Rey back to almost immediate health. And we’re off on an eventful road trip that includes encounters with an assortment of miscreants and Samaritans. Along the way, Rey evolves from Eric’s hostage to Eric’s friend. The catalyst for this transformation is never clear, but I suspect it has something to do with Henry having shot Rey and leaving him for dead at the beginning of the picture.

Eric and Rey’s journey plays like a whacked-out walkabout, as the two learn to survive by nothing but their wits. The problem is that their bonding isn’t all that interesting, largely due to the total lack of chemistry between Pearce and Pattinson. It causes the mind to wander and question the many lapses in plausibility. Like, why does Rey have an American drawl and his brother doesn’t? Or, why is it that Eric and Rey are able to drive hundreds of miles without ever stopping for petrol, assuming any fuel still exists 10 years after “the crash”? And most importantly, what is the point of a seemingly pointless movie?

There is one, but it does not reveal itself until the final scene. And when we do find out what was motivating Eric, you’ll likely laugh or groan in frustration. Either way, you’ll ultimately feel like you’ve wasted 100 minutes of your life. The only assets are the gorgeous images of desolation shot by director of photography Natasha Braier and the outstanding, almost dialogue-free performance by Pearce. Like Clint Eastwood in his spaghetti Westerns, Pearce does all his acting with his eyes. And it’s riveting. But Michod’s script gives him little to depict beyond sadness and angry brooding.

Page 2 of 2 - The gratuitousness of the violence is also an obstacle. Considering Michod wrote and directed the Oscar-nominated “Animal Kingdom,” you just assume “The Rover” will be bloody. But not to this extent. People are often shot for little or no reason. Particularly disturbing is a scene in which Eric blows the head off a dwarf while haggling over the purchase of a pistol. I’m sensing that Michod is making a statement about the mindlessness of gun violence, but it plays more like a glorification.

The most glaring problem with “The Rover,” though, is that it’s just plain dull. And a big reason for that sluggishness is Pattinson, who – like Daniel Radcliffe and Shia LaBeouf before him – is just too mannered and overreaching to take seriously. It’s nice that he’s making the attempt to expand and develop whatever iota of talent he possesses, but I’d rather he did it on his time, not mine.